id Software Consolidates Open-Source Code

While id Software may have recently lost its main Linux game developer (Timothee Bessett), they haven't abandoned their open-source ways. This afternoon John Carmack had an interesting tweet.

John Carmack, the well-known co-founder of id Software and a fan of open-source and Linux, had to say on Twitter, "All of the Id open source releases are now on github: github.com/id-Software"

It doesn't look like id Software has dropped (or otherwise revised) any new major code, but rather they have consolidated all of their open-source efforts on GitHub. Hosted from this GitHub area is now the source-code for Wolfenstein 3D for Apple iOS, DOOM Classic for iOS, the original Quake GPL, the original DOOM, Quake-Tools, idsetup, Quake-2-Tools, GtkRadient, the Doom 3 GPL release, Enemy Territory, Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer GPL, Return to Castle Wolfenstein Single-player GPL, Quake 3, and Quake III Area. Each of these titles have their own Git repository on GitHub.

What made this somewhat interesting was to see who pushed the code now that Timothee Bessett is no longer with id Software. After all, it was Timothee Bessett who handled the Doom 3 source-code release (along with other games) while being their "Linux guy." The id Software developer that consolidated all of these code-bases onto GitHub was not John Carmack but Travis Bradshaw.

Travis Bradshaw appears to be an id Software employee since 2010 that's a programmer who mostly appears to be working on id Software's infrastructure. However, this does include "comprehensive package management with Ubuntu GNU/Linux" and "Administrated development, testing, and production environments with several dozen VServer based containers running Debian GNU/Linux."

Unfortunately it doesn't look like Bradshaw is the Linux game porting specialist to replace TTimo, but I've reached out to him for comments. The most pressing question now is the state of the Rage (id Tech 5) Linux client.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the web-site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience and being the largest web-site devoted to Linux hardware reviews, particularly for products relevant to Linux gamers and enthusiasts but also commonly reviewing servers/workstations and embedded Linux devices. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics hardware drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated testing software. He can be followed via Twitter and Google+ or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.